Take My Hands Now

Chapter 4

"Is either one of us really ok?"

You were still looking at him with anger and tears in your eyes. Once you were able to catch your breath again, you promptly got off the bed and lumbered towards the nurse station.

"Hi, excuse me... can I leave now? I'm fine now", you asked the nurse on duty, eager to get out of this place and get away from that man.

"Sure, just need you to sign on this and settle the bill", she replied.

Right. You didn't have your wallet or your phone with you. What now? Should you ask her if you could go look for your store manager? Will she be willing to let you go off just like that?

"Here", Jungkook handed over his card to the nurse.

—

"I'll pay you back for the hospital bill and this taxi fare tomorrow", you said after getting onto the taxi that Jungkook had hailed for the both of you. You disliked the feeling that you owed him something.

"Mmhmm, but you actually have a lot more to pay me back for other than just that", he said cryptically.

"What do you mean?"

"Just you know, interest and all that. Nothing's free in this world, Y/N", he said as he sat next to you in the backseat.

His demeanour was subtly different from earlier, just enough for you to feel it. He was looking out the car window, his shoulders slanting towards you, right hand resting on the door's armrest, tapping his index finger slowly. On the flipside, You were sitting as close as possible to the car door, ready to jump out the moment the taxi reached your university hostel, constantly worrying whether he'll probe further about you.

Jungkook was revisiting his encounters with you. You definitely feel something whenever someone touches you. He thought about it some more. Both the times he touched you, you cried. So you could sense sadness? But wait, the pregnant woman touched you and you fainted. So it's not just emotions?

His phone was continuously buzzing and he didn't even bother to check who it was.

"Don't you want to pick that up?", you asked as the constant vibrations were starting to bother you.

"No. It's probably just Hoseok wanting to know why I'm not answering, which is why I'm not answering", he replied with his eyes still peeled on the buildings passing outside the car window.

You glanced at the clock at the front of the taxi, "11.53pm". It was already that late? But it's probably considered early for predators like him.

The rest of the journey was surprisingly quiet, he didn't pester you, he didn't ask you more questions, he just sat there next to you as though he thought you needed time to heal from the trauma earlier.

He only said "I'll see you tomorrow" as you were alighting.

"What? Why?", you were sure the only lecture you shared with him was not tomorrow.

"What do you mean why? Aren't you going to pay me back tomorrow? That's what you said. Now go rest", with that he reached over easily from his seat with his long arms to close the car door you were still holding.

—

Early next morning you went to the book store to collect your belongings before class. There were a slew of messages and missed calls from Mirae and Namjoon. You wasted no time assuring them that you were fine, and then slowly scrolled through all the messages until you reached the ones which had triggered their worries:

"Is that you Y/N, in the video??? Y/N, where are you???

Why haven't you been replying the whole night??